Door hinge



Oct. 20, 1953 J. H. LEWIS DOOR HINGE Filed Feb. 5, 1951 s-r; ma A pm 1 mW 7 Q E [ii 9 WWW a a j M "EA a a INVENTOR.

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Patented Oct. 20, 1953 DOOR HINGE Joseph Hilliard Lewis, Kingsport,Tenn., assignor to Blue Ridge Glass Corporation, Kingsport, Tenn, acorporation of New York Application February 3, 1951, Serial No. 209,297

2 Claims. 1

This invention relates to hinges and, in particular, to a hinge formounting a glass door formed of a single sheet of glass.

Most glass doors are formed of monolithic sheets of tempered glass whichare amply strong to withstand the abuse received by the doors.Considerable difficulty, however, has been experienced in finding asuitable manner of securing metal hardware, such as hinges to the glass.The most common type of hinge is that formed of a pair of hinge leavespivotally mounted on a pintle, the hinge leaves being secured one to thedoor frame and the other to the door itself. These hinges are consideredpreferable because of their strength, as well as the fact that their useavoids the formation of large cracks, or openings, between the door andthe door frame as the door is swung.

However, such hinges have not been commonly used for glass doors becauseof the difficulty of securing the hinge leaf to the glass of the door;this difiiculty being due, principally, to the fact that smallhinge-leaf, screw-anchoring holes cannot be drilled without undulyweakening the glass. As a result, most glass doors are swung on pintles,or pins, that extend upwardly from beneath the door and downwardly fromabove it, although such a mounting is not as strong as the hinge leafmounting, and, further, when doors are swung on these pins wide cracksare formed between the door and its frame which reduce the privacydesired of these partitions. Also, the customary door stopsconventionally used with hinge-leaf mounted doors cannot be used whenthe doors are mounted on these pins, and that fact further reduces thedesirable privacy.

It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a swingablemounting for glass doors which is as strong as the conventionalleaf-type wooden-door hinge and which, to the same degree as thatleaf-type hinge, provides privacy when the door is closed.

Another important object is to provide a manner by which such aswingable mounting can be secured to a glass door without weakening thelass.

Briefly described, the invention utilizes a pair of hinges similar tothe conventional wooden door leaf hinges except that the faces of theglass near the vertical edge to be hinged are clamped between pairs ofplates which frictionally support the door. The door is provided with atransverse opening through which the clamping mechanism extends, but theopening is sufficiently large so that no portion of the glass contactsthe clamp; while the clamping elements are so arranged that the pressureexerted by the clamp is transmitted to the main body portions of theglass rather than to the cut edges of the glass opening. The divertingof the clamping pressure from the cut edges of the opening isaccomplished by forming. coextensive, juxtaposed recesses in theinterior faces of the plates, these recesses being of greater width thanthe width of the opening in the glass, so that there is a free,uncontacted and unclamped portion of the glass surrounding, but spacedfrom, the clamping mechanism. Consequently, clamping pressure actingexternally on the plates is transmitted to the glass at points which.are spaced from the cut edges of its opening and from these pointsspreads to the main and strong mass of the door. The opening formed inthe door is made sufficiently large so that its edges will acquire fulltempered strength and will not form weak points, although, as stated,these edges are protected in the sense that they do not receive thestrains, and, further, do not come into contact with the metal of theplate-clamping mechanism. It, also, is desirable to insure a securefrictional engagement of the door by the clamping plates by placingfriction tapes between these members.

The preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated in theaccompanying drawings of which Fig. l is a side elevation of a lowerlefthand corner hinge, showing the hinge attached to the door jamb andto the door, the door being in a closed position and Fig. 2 is asectionalong lines II-II of Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawings, hinge l includes a hinge leaf 2 that issecured by screws 3 to jamb 4 of the door frame, the hinge also beingsecured, in a particular manner to be described, to glass door 6 bymeans of another hinge leaf 1 which, as may be noted in Fig. 2, isprovided with an offset flanged portion 8 that assures a 180 degreeswing of the door, as well as provides a covering for some of the doorscrews 3 when the door is closed so that the door cannot be removedsimply by detaching hinge leaf 2. To interconnect hinge leaves 2 and 1they are formed with eyes 9 and I0 through which extends a pintle II inthe conventional manner, these eyes being spaced apart by hearing ringsI2 to insure free swinging of the door.

As has been noted, the invention is concerned with a manner of mountinga conventional hinge leaf, such as hinge leaf 7 to a glass door, thedoor being formed of a single sheet of glass. The customary manner ofsecuring such conventional hinge leaves to the. door is by means, ofscrews a anchored in the door, put this is impractical when dealing withtempered glass doors, because, the contact of the metal screws and glasssoon would produce breakage and the door would shatter into a number ofsmall though rounded and relatively uninjurious fragments.

In the present invention, the door is swung on the hinge in such amanner that there is no metal and glass contact, and also, in such amanner that strains to which the glass of the door is subjected arespread out over a large and as suredly strong area of the glass.Generally, the mounting is formed by clamping glass door 6 (Fig. 2)between a pair of cover plates l3 and it, these plates together forminghinge leaf 1. Between the adjacent surfaces of plates l3 and I4 and theglass are interposed strips l5 formed of a friction tape, or anymaterial that is sufficiently tacky on both sides to resist any relativemovement between the plates and the glass, so that the glass of the dooris frictionally supported by clamping pressure which presses coverplates l3 and I4 tightly against the interposed friction tape.

To form the clamp, holes I6, of a certain diameter are formed inappropriate positions in the glass door and cover plate !3 is providedon its interior surface with a pair of recesses ll which, it may benoted, are of a greater width than the diameter of holes 13 so thatthere is a free, uncontacted and unclamped portion of glass [8projecting into these recesses. In a similar manner, cover plate M hasits interior surfaces provided with recesses [9 which align injuxtaposed positions with recesses ll of cover plate 0 l3 so thatportions l8 of the glass extend into these recesses.

The clamping pressure is obtained by means of screws 2| which arethreadably anchored in bosses 22 suitably attached to plate [4, formedof steel or other sufficiently hard material, and projecting outwardlyfrom the central portion of recesses IQ of plate M; plate [3 beingprovided. with openings through which flat-headed screws are insertable,the bosses of plate I4 being provided centrally with threaded openingsin which the screws are anchored.

One essential feature of the invention is that bosses 22 be less inwidth, or diameter, than the diameter of holes IS in the glass of thedoor, so that there can be no contact between the bosses and the cutedges of holes [6. Most preferably, bosses 22 project outwardly from thebottom surface of recesses IS, a distance which is short of the innerfaces of recesses I! so that the two plates may be pulled tightlytogether to clamp the glass as the screws are threaded into the bosses.

In forming the openings, certain dimensional limitations should beadhered to so as to prevent breakage of the glass. Thus, it is knownthat the distance between the edges of the glass sheet and the edges ofholes l6 should be a minimum equal to the thickness of the glass and,preferably, considerably greater than this thickness. This and otherlimitations now are quite generally understood by those familiar withthe working of glass that is to be tempered and, it is believed, theyneed no further amplification for the proper reproduction of the hingeof this invention.

With the arrangement described above, any strains transmitted from thehinge to the glass, or from the glass to the hinge structure, aretransmitted at points which are spaced from the iii edges of holes l6and, consequently, these strains spread throughout assuredly strongareas of the glass, the cut edges of holes I6 absorbing no appreciableportion of them. This is highly desirable, because these cut edges arethe points which are most likely to fracture and result in breakage ifthey are subject to strains, or if they are brought into contact withany metal of the clamps. As a result of this arrangement, it will berecognized that a hinge is provided for swingably mounting a glass door,the strength of the hinge being as great as the conventional leaf typehinges used to swingably mount wooden doors. A further advantage of thisarrangement lies in the simplicity of the structure as compared withthose door mountings in which the upper and lower edges of the door arepivoted about vertically projecting pins. In still another respect thishinge construction is an improvement over prior glass door hinges, sincethe privacy assured by doors swung on conventional wooden door leafhinges is obtained.

According to the provisions of the patent statutes, I have explained theprinciple, preferred embodiment and mode of operation of my invention,and have illustrated and described what is now considered to representits best embodiment. However, I desire to have it understood that,within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practicedotherwise than as specifically illustrated and described.

I claim:

1. A pintle hinge for swingably supporting a vertically hung glass doorof a building, the hinge having a leaf adapted to be attached to thevertical face of a door frame, a plate pintlely connected to said leafand adapted to overlie one face of a glass door, a second plate adaptedto overlie the other face of such a door opposite to said first-namedplate, a detachable clamp adapted to extend through an opening in thebody of such a door, said clamp engaging each of said plates forclamping them tightly on the opposite faces of such a door and so formedand proportioned H that it is free from engagement with any portion ofsuch door, the inner face of each of said plates being provided with arecess surrounding and spanning said clamp whereby said plate faces bearonly on flat portion of such a door that are spaced from the wall of anopening therethrough, a layer of adhesive material adapted adhesively toengage the inner face of each of said plates, each of said layers beingadapted. adhesively to engage fiat faces of such a door so that whensaid plates are attached to each other and clamped as aforesaid tightlyupon such a door the door when hung is adapted to be supported solely byvertical shear on said layers of adhesive material.

2. A pintle hinge for swingably supporting a vertically hung glass doorof a building, the hinge having a leaf adapted to be attached to thevertical face of a door frame, a plate pintlely connected to said leafand adapted to overlie one face of a glass door, a second plate adaptedto overlie the other face of such a door opposite to said first-namedplate, a detachable clamp adapted to extend through an opening in thebody of such a door, said clamp engaging each of said plates forclamping them tightly on the opposite faces of such a door and so formedand proportioned that it is free from engagement with any portion ofsuch a door, there being between the inner face of each of said plates are- 0885 surrounding and spanning said clamp where- 7 5 6 by said platefaces bear only on flat portions of References Cited in the the 01 thispatent sucha door that are spaced from the vyail of an UNITED STATESPATENTS opening therethrough, a layer of adhesive material adaptedadhesively to engage the inner face Number Name Date of each of saidplates, each of said layers being 5 527,765 Bowen 1394 adaptedadhesively to engage fiat faces of such a ,1 0 Bom ner D 1933 door sothat when said plates are attached to 2,173,670 splame p 1939 each otherand clamped as aforesaid tightly upon 2,200,337 Erath May 1940 such adoor the door when hung is adapted to be 23081356 Bosworth July 16, 1940supported solely by vertical shear on said layers 10 2342329vonlsalmenberg May 6, 1941 of adhesive material. 2,24%631 Pomeranz y1941 JOSEPH HILLIARD LEWIS. 2,609,069 McLaughlin Sep 2, 1952

